It was July 14, 2009 and at 4:50 pm I had my first contraction. I remember the time b/c I knew beyond a doubt that this was officially “a contraction!” so I started to time them. It wasn’t painful, just uncomfortable, and I remember thanking God that this labor was happening naturally (I was scheduled to be induced July 15, 6:30 am.) So my husband and I headed to the hospital. It was 6:00 pm when my OB Dr. said that I was 3 cm…awesome! These contractions were actually doing something! At this point my contractions were 10 minutes apart but were not too uncomfortable…I was carrying on convo’s on the phone, checking Facebook on my cell, watching t.v., etc. At 8 pm I sent my husband to go get my girls and my mother so that they could see that they weren’t missing anything. They came and went…my contractions were now 7 minutes apart. The nurse asked me to rate my pain 1-10, I said it was about 3-4. At around 10 pm I kissed my family goodbye and said, “I’ll see you guys in the morning when the baby gets here!” I told hubby, “You go home so that you can be rested for when I really need you.” Everyone was smiling and giddy knowing that the baby was gonna be here tomorrow morning!
Well, I watch the late night shows, breathing through the contractions that seem to be getting a little stronger and closer together and all of a sudden, OUCH! What the hell was that?! Why was it difficult to breathe through that contraction?! OUCH! I have to get up! I can’t lay down. It’s 2 am and I call the nurse and ask her to check my contractions on the graph thingy because they seem to be getting really close together. She says she can’t because I’m moving too much and that I should stay still the next time I feel a contraction. OUCH! Yeah right! That was impossible. “Pain is at a 7”, I told my nurse. I call Hubby and ask him to come so that he can help me walk through the pain b/c my legs were actually buckling with every contraction. And then all of a sudden the contractions were getting scarily close together. I can’t escape them, it hurts when I sit, it hurts when I stand, it hurts when I lay….Oh no. Forget the steady breathing, it didn’t seem to be working. I call hubby again, “Where are you, these are getting pretty bad.” I wanted to warn him that the calm, cool and collected Lisa that he saw a few hours prior was no longer in the room, but time didn’t allow.
Fast forward 3 minutes, he enters my room and sees a strange woman that is emitting a low, demonic growl that pregnant women tend to do during labor and so it had begun…ACTIVE labor. The nurse told me that the Dr. was on her way…”she only lives 5 minutes away, so hang in there.” Wait a minute, I can’t! All of a sudden, the pain was no longer inwards, it was pushing outwards…and…and…I began to yell. In a millisecond, a teeny tiny part of my brain told me, “you’re scaring half the women on this floor, shut up” and as quickly as that thought came, it went. It was impossible.
I began to push and scream. Why did I decide to do this natural again?! I began to curse all of my friends that encouraged the natural childbirth experience…I hated them. I don’t remember my husband being there…my eyes were now permanently shut and my arms were holding on to the bed rails for dear life. “DON’T PUSH!” the nurses yelled. I. Had. To. Push. Then I felt my water break, and that brief relief quickly turned into a 20 on the pain scale. “I want an epidural, please, give it to me now before its too late, please” No response. They had actually turned me to my side, my legs were together (because they didn’t want to deliver this baby with out the Dr.) PAIN!!! And I pushed. The nurse looks down, opens my legs and gasps…her head was out! Let me remind you, my eyes were closed but at that moment that she gasped I heard a ton of noise and scurrying. My husband grabbed 1 leg and she grabbed the other and out of nowhere I heard a voice. This was an unfamiliar voice and she told me to push. She said, “you have to push, now!” She took control and I had no choice but to submit. I screamed a scream that I did not know I was capable of and she was out.
Just to put it into perspective, 5 minutes went by from when I described my pain at a 7 to when the baby actually came out. It felt like an eternity, but in actuality it was very fast. My Dr. came into the room right after the baby came out. My poor husband had no idea that when he walked into the room, that was what he was gonna see and experience and that in 5 minutes he would be holding his new baby girl. Hearing his version of the experience is quite funny…now.
